Bismuth tellurium (Bi2Te3) and alloys of Bismuth tellurium (Bi2Te3), along with bismuth selenium (Bi2Se3), antimony tellurium (Sb2Te3) and antimony selenium (Sb2Se3) are the best materials for thermoelectric applications at approximately room temperature. These materials are narrow band gap semiconductors with a layered structure and a high figure of merit Z. Thin films of bismuth tellurium (Bi2Te3) have been deposited by various methods including metal oxide chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD), RF diode sputtering, molecular beam epitaxy, flash evaporation, electrodeposition and hot-wire epitaxy through a dual source approach. The precursors used for deposition of bismuth tellurium (Bi2Te3) include Bi(CH3)3, Bi(C2H5)3, Bi(N(Si(CH3)3)2)3 and Bi(NMe2)3 as sources of bismuth and Te(CH3)2, Te(C2H5)2, Te(CH(CH3)2)2, Te(C(CH3)3)2 and Te(SiMe3)2 as sources of tellurium. The dual source approach can be improved upon by application of a single source approach to advantageously provide (a) air and/or moisture stability, (b) low temperature film growth, (c) control of stoichiometry, (d) limitation of side reactions, and (e) control of impurity incorporation into films by proper ligand design.
Accordingly, the inventors have developed improved single source precursors, methods for synthesizing single source precursors and methods to deposit nanowire based thin films using single source precursors for high efficiency thermoelectric devices.